Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Only himself and myself eat Christmas Cake, so I no longer make the lovely large one I used to make. This one does instead; it's a souped-up version of my Rum Brack. A non-vegan version can be made of course - substitutes in receipe.

- Soak the fruit, sugar, rum/whiskey and tea in a bowl - leave until cold
- Preheat the oven to 180C
- Grease and line the bottom of an 8" round tin (I used a 2lb loaf tin, this time)
- Add the melted marg to the fruit mix. Stir through.
- Add the beaten egg. Stir through.
- Sieve flour, then fold in the flour, bread soda and spice
- Scrape/pour mixture into the lined tin
- Bake for 55 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean
- Cool in the tin for 10 mins then turn onto a wire rack.
- Peel off paper when cool
- Wrap cake in greaseproof and store in a tin
- Prick cake with a cocktail stick and feed with a more rum/brandy once a week (if the cake lasts that long!)
- We're not marzipan or icing fans but vegan versions of both are available :)

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

High days and holy days, it seems, are the only times I drop by here. Despite the fact I bake EVERY Tuesday for The Great British Bake Off. Too much to do, too little time, my friends. Anyway, the new twist on my brack is rum. And it's yum! It came about because the heroine of my next novel, Becoming Belle (out Aug. 2018) eats rum cake with her father and I wanted to make it for Christmas. Hallowe'en seemed as good a time as any to try it.

I'm reducing wheat at the mo due to that stomach thing I picked up in China last year, so I've used a mixture of rice and spelt flour, but you can use any flour.

A bench, by night, on the grounds of Belle's Galway home,
Garbally Park, Ballinasloe

- Soak the fruit, sugar, rum and tea in a bowl - leave until cold
- Preheat the oven to 180C
- Grease and line the bottom of an 8" round tin (I used a 2lb loaf tin, this time)
- Add the melted marg to the fruit mix. Stir through.
- Add the beaten egg. Stir through.
- Sieve then fold in the flour, bread soda and spice
- Pour into the lined tin (insert wrapped coin or ring at this point, if using)
- Bake for 55 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean
- Cool in the tin for 10 mins then turn onto a wire rack.

Friday, March 17, 2017

I only had one egg left when I went to make buns today, so I had to find a recipe that needed just one egg. I flicked through my books and found a Snickers and Peanut Butter Mufffins recipe in Nigella's Domestic Goddess. I don't keep Snickers bars about my person, but I always have dark choc chips to hand for baking, hence the change. I also halved Nigella's recipe, to make buns rather than muffins, but it only yielded nine buns. Anyway! Here we go:

I used my Orla Kiely bowl for the day that's in it

Peanut
butter & choc chip buns

INGREDIENTS

125g
plain flour

3
tablespoons caster sugar

3/4
tablespoon baking powder

pinch of
salt

3
tablespoons peanut butter

30g
butter, melted

1 egg,
beaten

90ml milk

50g dark
choc chips

METHOD

·Preheat
oven to 200˚C

·Line
a 12-space bun tin (my mix made 9 buns)

·Throw
all the dry ingredients into a bowl, mix

·Add
the peanut butter and mix until you have a breadcrumby texture

·Add
the melted butter and egg to the milk and stir gently into the bowl

·Mix
in the chocolate chips

·Plop
the mixture into the bun cases using two spoons

·Bake
for 20 - 25 minutes, until golden on top and firm to the (light) touch